Our Story.
Founded by Pavel Subrt and Ludo A.F. Swinnen in 2013 in Vienna, Austria, East meets West is a network of LGBTIQ professionals from Western & (primarily) Eastern Europe. East meets West facilitates the exchange of ideas, the sharing of best practices and generates mutual inspiration to improve the social acceptance of LGBTIQ people in the different countries. East meets West is the facilitator of awareness on LGBTIQ businesses and that LGBTIQ people can be successful entrepreneurs and become role models inside and outside the LGBTIQ community. East meets West has also a catalyst function in the LGBTIQ organisational ecosystem by connecting NGOs, diplomatic representatives, officials, corporate players, entrepreneurs and variety of other inspiring personalities. Our East meets West 'signature event' is an annual conference.
The East meets West network has now grown to ±1.400 professionals who mainly are from Central & Eastern Europe, incl. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Armenia, Lithuania and Latvia.
East meets West acts as the LGBTIQ Business Chamber for CEE Region (Central & Eastern Europe) and is the founding member of EGLCC, The European LGBTIQ Chamber of Commerce.
Pavel Subrt
Proud and out LGBTIQ professional in Corporate Banking in a large international financial institution. He is Focusing on leveraging the potential of Digital in banking across CEE Region (Central & Eastern Europe) and drives performance of digital communities to fulfill the yet unmet (digital) needs of corporate customers. After raising the operational and technological excellence of Contact Centers in Central and Eastern Europe, he moved his focus on Digital Banking and Innovation Management. Pavel, born in 1977 in The Czech Republic, holds a Business degree from the Anglo-American University (AAU) of Prague.
Besides his passion for East meet West, in 2018 Pavel co-founded BRich Austria, the joint initiative of the LGBTIQ Employee Resource Groups of Austrian companies also the EGLCC, The European LGBTIQ Chamber of Commerce.
Pavel lives with his husband Laco and daughter Nella in Vienna and Prague.
Connect with Pavel on LinkedIn
Ludo A.F. Swinnen
Ludo is a Flemish Belgian who will soon retire from an international career in insurance and retail banking. After a starting period in Belgium, he continued his professional activities as expatriate, working for major international financial companies with a main focus on the development of their activities in the CEE region. He is the co-founder of a number of LGBTI organisations of which ‘East meets West’ and the ‘European LGBTIQ Chamber of Commerce’ are the most important ones. His major drive as an LGBTI activist is the conviction that gay rights are human rights that must be globally respected. He has a law degree from the University of Leuven (Belgium), an EMBA in Finance from the University of New-York and a degree in Contemporary Art from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art (UK). He lives with his husband Yves in Antwerp (Belgium) and Nice (France).
Connect with Ludo on LinkedIn